Zoids Genesis Review

Zoids Genesis is one of four series released for the model line started in the earlier 80's, "Zoids". With the promotion of several TV series it has come a long way with Genesis being the latest among them, and possibly rated as the best.

----01. Additions and concepts, good or bad?
Some of the concepts in Zoids Genesis can be reviewed in a good or bad manner. A highlight to some mech fans who may enjoy more realistic styles comes the fuel that's required to run the Zoids. In earlier series they seemed to run on infinate energy (and in the case of the Gravity Zoids from Fuzors, they did!) but the Genesis series has offered a remedy situation and interesting plot asset by requiring this fuel, a substance that allows the zoid to move but will quickly dry within 3 days, requiring the zoid to refuel if it wants to continue moving. I give this points mainly because it is something that stays in the series throughout the series but does not consume masses of time in every episode.
One of the less favorable points is the supernatural element applied to the series. Be aware of the spoilers to follow.
While I myself enjoy some unnatural elements in a series, even a mech series, I was a bit disappointed with the outcome of the series which determined Bio Zoids to be run by human souls. This element of the series was very dry and while it did add Drama to some characters, such as the rival Zairin, I felt that it was a pointless addition and I can't help but feel that they could have taken the series in a much different direction and acheived even better results in doing so.
Another aspect that has been removed from the series, but not added, is the personality of a zoid. Throughout Genesis it would seem that the zoids no longer have a personality of their own. This may be questionable in some parts but one thing is for sure, there don't seem to be any zoids besides the Deadly Kong and Bio Volcano that show attitude! Even then the attitude of the zoid is primarily vicious, as opposed to earlier zoids such as the Organoid Zeke (In Chaotic Century), who was a nice and kind zoid, and the Liger Zero, Zero (In New Century Zero) who was a little too obnoxious for his own good.
Genesis revives the concept of an ancient race still scraping by and brings a strong sense of mythology into the series. Featured in the series are the Sky People, something short of mythology and perhaps even a sense of religion in the chaos-stricken world of Zi (Am I the only one that things another one of those moons blew up?). Among these people are two zoids that have been revered, something I personaly enjoyed in the series despite the races tacky fashion sense.
While I'm aware this isn't always the best thing in a Mech series I enjoy seeing something about how the zoids were long ago, what happened, and how they have been reintroduced to civilization in the 'new' world. In spite of my lacking enthusiasm for the Sky Race, which I didn't care for as opposed to the Ancient Zoidian's of CC, I thoroughly enjoyed the aspect of the revered zoids for a less war-based focus point.
Last that will be reviewed in this section covers the Murasame Liger and it's "Evolt" process. The best relation this has is to Chaotic Century where organoids could help a zoid evolve (although in that series it proved to be a more permanent change). In Genesis the hero zoid, Murasame Liger, has the ability to evolt into two different forms, the speed/fired based Hayate Liger and the divine unit the Mugen Liger.
I enjoy transformational abilities in zoids but I was a bit iffy when I first saw the Murasame Liger evolt. I like the fantasy element of it but the liger's armor popping out of no where was just as bad, to me, as the transformation sequences in Zoids Fuzors. I'm inclined to review this as a bad aspect of the series, not only for the manner in which the evolt was executed but because they repeat this sequence over and over and over again. Not only do they repeat the same sequence, but they have proven in at least two occassions that they could save significant time by showing the zoid evolt WITHOUT the sequence in a manner just as cool and yet they disregard that for the sake of sucking up time.
Genesis can definitely be reviewed as different from the earlier series but rather or not this is in a good or a bad way is entirely up to the viewer's personal preference.



----02: Plot
Genesis starts out to be one plot and changes into something almost entirely different, but I'll review this as good or bad in a bit.
From where the series begins, a new empire is beginning to forge, known as Diguard (There have been several alternative spellings for this nation but I am going to go with this one). As the series begins they're actually in a very premature stage, having only the two weakest zoids of the entire organization as their combat units. However, they hold the advantage of circumstance.
Diguard's association and rein over many towns and cities have given them great power. With few zoids all they need is a pilot, or in this case, robot that can pilot them. The times are hard and the people are striving to get by. The once proud standing occupation of a Zoid Pilot has since fallen and the machines rendered to construction vehicles, trying to recover from the apocolyptic events of their past.
Introduced is the different aspect of pilots. Fame and reputation surround those who can get a zoid to awaken once recovered, as is the case for our hero Ruuji's father, who has been able to awaken zoids in the past.
Sadly, our young friend Ruuji has not. In spite of this their small town has been peaceful for the past while. Their generator, a large fuel harvesting tree, has granted them long lasting stability and their excavation process have gifted them with several zoids.
It's one fateful event that brings an ancient zoid, the Murasame Liger to the surface, but time has not been kind to this liger who's covered in moss, alge, and barnicles. Furthermore he seems lost, unable to awaken, that is until the city is attacked.
Coming from the forests are the silver zoids, the Bio Raptors. With chrome armor and a body made of blood red 'flesh' styled structure, these skeletal zoids are the grounds for Diguards rein of terror, and after the town's Generator they come to burn the city and all of it's civiliens to the ground.
When the city is attacked and many zoids charge into battle Ruuji ends up inside of the Liger. Despite his earlier failures and uselessness to the town, the Liger recognizes Ruuji and awakens from it's slumber. Unfortunately, the liger still goes mostly on Ruuji's command, and while it does manage to cut down a bio zoid Ruuji's lacking ability as a pilot shows through and renders the liger helpless on many occassions.
The series finally begins to progress when Ruuji meets two -real- zoid pilots, Rei Mii (Sp?) and Ra Kan. Thanks to these pilots, along with the Murasame Liger, the Bio Zoids are driven back, save for one - the Bio Megaraptor. It's pilot, Zairin, grows furious when the Liger gives resistance and fires a single shot to destroy it, but when Ruuji dodges the Generator takes the fall for his safe escape.
The Bio Zoid's that'd attacked the city retreat, but now the town is devastated. Without the generator their calm life style will fade and everything will die. Without it their town is surely doomed, and all because of that one event.
For the sake of the town, Ruuji sets out with the two pilots to find someone who can repair the generator of his town. In spite of his inability to pilot his zoid and his former lack of experience living on his own he tredges onwards with the determination to help what was caused in his battle before it's too late
Diguard proves to be an annoyance to this journey throughout following episodes. Several times Ruuji and his team take a side quest to fight the Diguard zoids and every time that they destroy a Diguard unit the reputation of the Blue Liger begins to skyrocket. Before long many of the Diguard pilots learn of this Liger and await their chance to fight him in combat. Among these pilots are Ferumi, pilot of the Bio Ptera, Souta, pilot of the Bio Kentro, and Gyorg (I'm gonna call him George.), pilot of the Bio Tricera. This is not including our earlier buddy Zairin nor his leader, Gene.
However, the story also progresses and emphasizes on how Diguard is excelling in combat. They've created several new Bio Zoids, always far more powerful than the earlier versions, and have even mass produced the already troublesome Bio Megaraptor. It becomes clear that the evil nation of Diguard must be taken care of at all costs, but how will this work?
Among the battle Ruuji has not lost sight of his original goal. He feels great remorse for the growing outcome of things and the fact that he has not yet found a repairman for his town's Generator, despite all of the leads he'd received thus far.
This was a nice turning point for the series. They didn't simply forgot about the original goal, but rather they changed the flow of the storyline with a decisive battle. Ruuji lost and thus follows alongside Ra Kan in his attempted to gain followers to battle Diguard and soon the series becomes a war of the civiliens Vs. the Diguard Army.
Throughout the plot Ruuji continues to progress as a pilot. I thought that this was important because earlier series had a very annoying point of a kid getting into a zoid and immediately being nigh war hero. It was nice to see slow progress of the Murasame Liger's pilot and such enthusiastic reactions to completing such a simple task as cutting an enemy zoid.
As the Genesis plot further infolds the Sky People, an old 'race' so to speak are revealed. Their relation with Diguard is further revealed and their alliance violated, at which point Gene goes far out of control.
While I won't explain the very end of the series I'll have a lot to complain about when it comes to this guy. For now I'll move on to the rest of the review.

----03: Characters:
... Oh where to start.
I didn't like the Genesis characters to be honest, but I havn't known the Zoids series to have that many favorable characters. The hero is another generic kid, which mentioned earlier at least gets points for having to learn to pilot a zoid.
The other characters were fairly dry. I personally thought Rohn was probably the best pilot of the series but many aspects of the characters were ruined. Character Deaths turned out to not be deaths at all, the illness of one character was cured, and more or less every bit of dramatic flare that some of the characters had was utterly destroyed and nullified by the end of the series.
One may find the side characters, those who are actually mostly unimportant to be more amusing. I liked characters such as Tize (Sp?) more than a lot of the main characters.
The same can be said for the villains. The most famed of these villains would include the woman Ferumi, who has fame only for her countless bath scenes throughout the series.
While each character had their own back story and episode dedication I only really cared for Ra Kan/Rei Mii's and Seijuurou's pasts. Possibly even old lady Dan Bull's. While the plot is nice, Ruuji has the back story of practically every single zoids fan fic in the world of 'kid gets his village burned down'.
Sadly I'm gonna have to rate the characters poorly for this one.

----04: Sound
I saw this on the review ratings and I thought I would add a small tid bit about it because I thought it was worth mentioning.
The only sound rating I'm going to give is on zoid vocals. I quite enjoyed that some of the zoids voices stayed consistent. People who have seen CC would know that often times a zoid when injured would belt out a must unusual mechanical screech that was nothing you'd ever dream of hearing from the actual animal. In genesis this seems to have been removed, for the most part, at least from the carnivores of the series.
It's quite unusual that the Lance Stag has the sound effects of a horse, though.

----05: Animation
A lot of people didn't like the animation in genesis when it first started out. I can see why, as the animation of series such as New Century Zero left a strong expectation that was mostly crushed in Fuzors, thus making people a little annoyed to see a more CG styled system.
Personally, I think Genesis' animation is among the best in zoids series. While not completely cel shaded it comes the two styles, Cel Shading and soft, and makes for a nice appearance. My only complaint about their coloring is the lack of vibrant colors and distortion of others, making Murasame's armor a grungy sort of green/blue and red zoids like Sword Wolf a bleached pink.
Movement and run cycles may leave a bad impression at first, especially with zoids like Murasame Liger that bounce around. I myself think that they do improve greatly as the series goes in and the movement is a little less... funky. It does bug me that the Murasame Liger's shoulder armor doesn't move when it runs, but I would still give the movement in the later episodes a high rating.
I bring up movement because I know that many fans of the earlier series enjoyed New Century Zero's excellent movement which was extremely close to the realistic animal and very fluid. I think that this has left a strong impression on fans and is something they would like to see in the later series. I'm sorry to say that no series beats NC0 in movement, but this series is still very good.
An added bonus is that in genesis, on certain occassions the screen bounces when the zoid steps down. This isn't too much to be annoying but it gives the zoid weight and adds to the effect of the sequence. I'd give that a good rating too.


----6: Zoids; unusual changes
The Genesis series has broken away from many earlier series which focused on ligers and wolves, even Tyrannosaurus zoids. It still has all of these, but the change is that there are many more unique zoids.
Included in the series are the more unique Peacock zoid, Rainbow Jark, the Deadly Kong (Gorilla type. If you see the zoid you'll understand why it's a little different), and the moose type zoid, Lance Stag. There are also some unusual dinosaur zoids such as the Bio Kentro, which is based on the kentrosaurus.
At first I wasn't sure what to think of these zoids but I can honestly say that they are refreshing additions to the roster of good guys and bad guys and make for an unusual, but good change. I'm sure a number of other people also agree.
For those who like old school, there's no need to fear. Many of the old zoids like Command Wolf and Elephander are still in the series. Zaber Fangs come in masses and even the Two (of three) Tigers come in, Brastle Tiger (basic and genesis colored variation) and Soul Tiger (Rayse Tiger modification).
The zoids in this series are excellent and steadily regulate throughout battles. They see good use and balance well in large numbers.


----06: Over All Rating
I'd give Genesis a pretty good rating. All of it's combined features make it one of the best series, second only to maybe Chaotic Century and Guardian Force.
While I didn't care for the characters I loved the combat. Battles were handled nicely, strategy was used in at least a couple battles, and there's nothing better than seeing some few hundred zoids tear eachother apart throughout the series. The war aspect of it brings an insane number of zoids and pilots into the spotline while the series doesn't seem too horribly cluttered.
The story isn't the best, but I enjoyed it up until the end. The ending concepts just kind of bugged me but I won't go so far as to say it was that insanely horrible.
The animation is pretty good, as is the movement. Character animation isn't the best but they have some nice designs and every once in a while they have some really well drawn scenes.
It's a series worth watching and hopefully this review helped fans of the earlier series understand the highlights and downsides, as well as comparisons to earlier series to determine rather or not they'd like to watch it.